Brett Allen and company have some great tips and information for the ride at Google Maps, including what to do if you have a flat, links to what to wear, etc. You should also note the change in starting location for the ride.

These are folks who aren't content to let the city do the work of making way for cyclists, they're barnstorming commuters who are going to take the lane and not give it back! Good work, WAD!

Comments

Riding arterial streets is one of the easiest things to do, yet many cyclists find it intimidating. When there's a passing lane available, motorists use it and traffic flows smoothly around a cyclist taking his lawful (and safe) position in the right hand lane. Ride in the right side tire track and cars simply go around. It's amazingly simple.

I second that opinion. To make this a bit more local in focus, I find it much easier to make my way down streets such as Summit, with fewer traffic lights and almost no street parking, than I do to go down High Street with more stop-and-go traffic and street parking almost all the way from Clintonville to downtown.

You'll hear people talking about being "organic" cyclists a lot, and usually that equates to people who think it's okay to run red lights whenever they feel like it. But there's something to getting your bike into regular traffic and just riding in it. You become part of the traffic and I really believe that people don't see you as so much of an impediment to their speed as you might think.

The Dispatch report that Columbus Rides Bikes shared on Facebook today is entitled "More crashes come with more bicycle traffic on dedicated lanes," and discusses the new lanes and the number of accidents that have happened there. None of these accidents/crashes has been fatal.

So... you can read the article and get the statistics. Here's a summary of them, though, with a quote from the article:
...the number of crashes has jumped. Between 2012 and 2015, there were five crashes involving bicycles on Summit between Hudson and East 5th Avenue.…

In a move that has left quite a few people stranded in Columbus, the ride-sharing company Car2Go has announced today that they're pulling out of the local market as of May 31.

car2go is saddened to announce that we have made the difficult decision to suspend our operations in Columbus as of May 31. Read why here: https://t.co/gRSibUhotB
— car2go Columbus (@car2goColumbus) May 24, 2018
This has got me more than a little pissed off and very inconvenienced.

There's no doubt - Car2Go improved the quality of my family's life for the past few years while they were active in town. As a one-car family where I rode my bike and took the bus most days, Car2Go filled in the gap nicely when we needed that extra set of wheels to get ourselves places.

Here's the news they sent out via their website today:

HELLO,
We’re writing to let you know that after careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue car2go service in Columbus, effective May 31, 2018.
In 201…

I've been out with the flu for a few days (no, I'm not oinking), and I missed this surprising post from Jeff Stephens of Consider Biking back on October 9th. Suffice to say that Jeff took some time to sit back and watch the behavior of our city's cyclists, and was dismayed at what he saw. I'm in complete agreement with Jeff on this issue. Simply too many Columbus cyclists do not obey the law. But let's look at the reasons that Jeff proposed in his commentary: Why are you riding this way? Are you so self-absorbed, that the world revolves around you? Are you just opportunistic since the bicycle gives you the opportunity to cheat traffic? Are you “expressing yourself” with your nonchalant coolness, hipness, whatever? Or, do you just not know any better? Do you just follow the example of the guy/gal in front of you because you’re new to urban bicycling? (I think it’s the latter.)Jeff's statement breaks the possible reasons for this behavior down into two extrem…